The Issues and Prospects for E-Governance in Eastern Africa

Abstract

This chapter discusses the issues, prospects, and challenges of e-governance in Africa with a focus on the progress of universal primary education in east Africa. It uses Uganda to showcase the need for e-governance of primary school education. The objectives are to describe the current status of the universal primary education, the key issues encountered in an effort to achieve MDG 2, and highlight the prospects of e-governance in achieving education. In this chapter, the authors collate published evidence on the performance of Uganda in implementing the MDG 2. There is a wide rural-urban digital gap, weak ICT infrastructures, and low awareness at the expense of quality UPE. There is limited access to ICT, ICT illiteracy, poor quality education, lack of e-books or ICT instructional materials to cut the costs of school administration like communication. E-governance has yet to achieve full deployment in education service delivery.